Sweet! Great job, Joe. Love the minimalist style with just the right amount of accents that really calls attention to the shape. With just the single pickup and being fretless, do you get a sound similar to a double bass with a peizo pickup?

When I was in college, I helped with sound and stage set-up for a Chris Brubeck concert and got to pick his brain during some down time. His electric bass set-up was so close in sound to an amplified upright, you couldn’t tell the difference without looking—I’ve always loved that sound. It’d be cool to hear a recording of yours. Got a YouTube or something else out there?

-- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson

Sound is pretty similar to Bakithi Kumalo’s on Graceland (Paul Simon). It’s very growly, with a nice warm tone. The slightly shorter scale means it’s quite a complex sound. It’s not very sharp, or bright, but it has a lovely sound which is great for most music styles, especially solo.

Sweet! Great job, Joe. Love the minimalist style with just the right amount of accents that really calls attention to the shape. With just the single pickup and being fretless, do you get a sound similar to a double bass with a peizo pickup?

When I was in college, I helped with sound and stage set-up for a Chris Brubeck concert and got to pick his brain during some down time. His electric bass set-up was so close in sound to an amplified upright, you couldn t tell the difference without looking—I ve always loved that sound. It d be cool to hear a recording of yours. Got a YouTube or something else out there?

- JayT

I’d love to run sound for someone like Brubeck, that sounds amazing!

It could manage a double bass sound, easily, but it’s set up at the moment for a more solo-istic, modem sound. With some tape wounds, I’m certain it would manage it (my rig is an Eden EC-28, so it sounds very neutral).

The body carving really isn’t that complicated. It’s a heavy round over the whole way round, with a fore-arm contour and an upper-fret access carving. It was done entirely with a rasp, files and sandpaper.

The bridge design is my own. The fingerboard extends from the nut to the very end of the bass, and the saddle and pickup are cut into it.